Getting In Shape for the Big Ride -- The Heart of the Matter (Conditioning Part 2)

We human beings possess body parts designated as "vital organs." We have other body parts designated as "non-vital organs."

Don't misunderstand. Non-vital organs are important. Where would we be without fingernails? Lips? Hair? (Well, ok, perhaps hair isn't all that important. But nice to have. I kind of miss mine. And I don't like the fact that I shed more hair than my daughter's dog.)

Some non-vital organs are very important and helpful. Such as eyes, noses, throats, feet, hands. But as important and helpful as they are, you can still, albeit often with great difficulty, go on living without them.

Some people, by no choice of their own, are missing some of these non-vital organs. And they choose to go on living. Often very amazing lives. And they have my profound respect and admiration. They have chosen to be Victors and Shapers of Their Own Destiny, not Victims Making Excuses And Blaming Others For Their Lives.

But vital organs are a different matter all together. A vital organ is a can't-do-without piece of you. You die if it stops working or goes missing. Like lungs. Brains. (I know what you're thinking: Some people don't seem to have one and yet they go on living. It is rumored many are successful in politics.)

When it comes to conditioning for this Big Ride, I am actually focusing on three vital organs: Heart, Muscles and Lungs. (I know. Some of you are saying, "But the heart is actually a muscle." You're right. But I am designating it as a special kind of muscle. Thanks for your understanding in this matter. Don't feel like you have to write me about this or make a comment on the blog. Your intelligence and well informed mind is noted and recognized.)


My heart is essential to this trip, because if it stops working, I die.  Or if it doesn't work pretty good, I will probably experience a great deal of discomfort and even illness.

My lungs are essential to this trip, because if they stop working, I die. Or if they don't work pretty good, I will probably experience a great deal of discomfort and even illness. (I think I hear an echo in here.)

Many other muscles in my body are essential for this trip. If they stop working, or get injured and don't work in an efficient way, I will experience a great deal of discomfort, and even possible personal danger. Something like getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere and not having a spare tire.

My heart, lungs, and muscles have this partnership going that keeps me alive and well.

My lungs and their associated muscles, like expanding contracting balloons, suck in oxygen rich air. The oxygen in the air is the energy source for all things alive in me, which is just about every part of me. (I have been called a "Dead Beat." But I think the reference was more metaphorical than biological.)

The oxygen is amazingly absorbed through the walls of my lungs. (And for this reason, young people, smoking cigs is bad news. It destroys the very tiny hairy like things on the lung walls that transport the oxygen from the air and into your body. Mess up those hairy things, and you can't get the oxygen. To see what this results in, go to a nursing home and visit some older folks who have smoked for several years. Not a cheerful sight.) .

As soon as those oxygen molecules enter your body, they are picked up by your blood and transported to basically every muscle and cell in your body.

This is where the heart comes in the picture. The heart is simply a muscle that squeezes back and forth and puts the pressure on the blood in the tubes (veins and arteries) so that those oxygen energy packages can be delivered and released to the muscles all over your body so that the muscles can move and do their thing.

So, my lungs take in energy packed oxygen, which my blood picks up and carries to all the muscles in my body because my heart keeps the blood moving.

So if my lungs, or muscles, or heart break or don't work really good, I'm toast. Probably literally. I will just stop by the side of the road and get baked by the Arizona sun. Well done Road Kill without automotive assistance.

That is not how I want to spend my vacation. Therefore, I choose to exercise and, as best I can, prepare my heart, lungs, and muscles for this Big Bike Ride.

So, in order to survive and enjoy this Big Bike Ride, I need to condition and create a heart that won't stop pumping and can actually do that pumping really well, lungs that are really good at sucking in that oxygen rich air and scooting it into my blood stream, and muscles that are really good at taking that oxygen out of the blood and burning it like premium fuel (Not a fossil/carbon fuel. Pure bio fuel. Leaves no carbon footprint. But maybe a little exhaust :-) so I can get to the top of the next incline, hill, or mountain or Mexican food restaurant or motel.

In my next posting, I'll describe more what I am doing to condition my heart, lungs, and muscles using my soon-to-be-patented exercise program called "Pain Is Just Weakness Leaving the Body So Just Suck It Up and Stop Complaining (With Insights From the Book The Power of Positive Thinking)."